KODEX App of Austrian Law
KODEX is Austria’s leading collection of laws, edited by Univ.-Prof. dr Werner Doralt. The thematically arranged CODEX volumes are edited by experts in the respective area of law and updated with every significant change in the law. Another distinguishing feature is the KODEX handle bar on the printed book, which provides a structured overview of all specialist areas and enables quick access to the laws you are looking for. KODEX is published by Linde Verlag and LexisNexis Verlag.
Features
- Mobile apps for Apple iOS and Google Android smartphones and tablets
- Desktop app for Microsoft Windows
- Newsstand view with all available KODEX volumes
- Implementation of the KODEX-typical grip bar for fast navigation in extensive texts
- Full-text search in all purchased volumes
- Bookmarks for finding researched paragraphs and articles
- Note function for all paragraphs and articles
- Voucher code entry to activate a purchased print edition in the App
- Management of user groups and quotas for employees of larger companies
- Offline capability without a mobile data connection
Implementation
In order to be able to access an extensive common code basis for development for three platforms (iOS, Android and Windows), we decided against native development. The mobile versions run on the hybrid framework NativeScript, while the Windows desktop version was developed with Electron. This enabled us to jointly design maintainable JavaScript/TypeScript libraries that provide the basic data storage, administration and full-text functions. The views were then implemented with web technology (HTML, CSS) for the respective platform.
For the future, Electron will also make it possible to publish the KODEX desktop app for MacOS and Linux with manageable effort.
EPUB v2 containers, which are delivered from the workflow of the producing publishers, are used to transport the content. Meta information is added to the EPUB containers on the server side, which, among other things, identifies laws, paragraphs and articles, e.g. to enable navigation via the KODEX handle bar. Each EPUB also receives a pre-computed full-text index for each volume.
We have developed a classic Java server application for the administrative backend and the data supply for the apps. The back-end user interface allows management of all volumes and editions, the users and devices and the available book codes. Statistical functions can be used, for example, to monitor the use of individual KODEX issues. All apps communicate with the server application via REST API to handle registration, code redemption and volume downloads.
All data communication is of course secured according to state-of-the-art security standards and GDPR-compliant.